Many blame the United States, France and other allies for allowing neighboring Rwanda to fuel a conflict in the country’s east.
The United States on Tuesday advised U.S. nationals to leave the Democratic Republic of Congo on commercial flights after hundreds of protesters attacked several foreign embassies and a United Nations building in the capital, Kinshasa.
The attacks came amid fury over a rebel offensive backed by neighboring Rwanda in Congo’s east. Anger at Congo’s foreign allies has been rising over what is seen as their failure to stop an assault on the key eastern city of Goma by M23, a militia that the United Nations and United States say is supported and directed by Rwanda.
“Due to an increase in violence throughout the city of Kinshasa, the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa advises U.S. citizens to shelter-in-place and then safely depart while commercial options are available,” a security alert published on the embassy’s website read.
The embassy issued the notice at the end of a violent day in Kinshasa.
Protesters burned tires and threw stones in front of the U.S. Embassy’s main compound, according to local news reports, and breached the site of a new embassy building that is under construction, according to an American official in Kinshasa who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve staff safety. The site was later secured and no one was injured, the official said.
Protesters attacked the French Embassy in the city, causing a fire, according to Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister, who denounced the violence as “unacceptable,” although he said the blaze had been brought under control.